DOI: 10.6129/CJP.20131024
Chinese Journal of Psychology 2014, Vol.56, No.1, 13-29
Effects of Trait Anger and Cognitive Strategies on State Anger in Fifth- and Sixth-Grade Children
Wan-Ling Chung（Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University；Department of Psychology, Chung Yuan Christian University）；Fu-Chien Hung（Department of Psychology, Chung Yuan Christian University）；Pei-Yung Liang（Department of Psychology and Counseling, National Taipei University of Education）
Abstract
The present study aims to investigate the influence of trait anger and cognitive strategies on induced state anger
in elementary school-aged children. Sixty-eight children with high trait anger and sixty-seven children with low trait anger participated in this study. An anger induction procedure involving guided recall (i.e., recalling an anger-provoking memory) was used to induce angry moods in participants. Following this, participants were instructed to either ruminate on the anger-provoking memory or engage in distraction for 2 minutes. Participants’ levels of state anger were measured at three time points: before and after the anger induction and after the anger regulation manipulation (i.e., rumination or distraction). The results revealed that the high trait anger group had a higher level of state anger before and after the anger induction as compared with the low trait anger group. The two groups did not differ with respect to the magnitude of change in the state anger following anger induction. Moreover, for both the groups, participants in the rumination condition reported a higher level of state anger than participants in the distraction condition, following anger regulation manipulations. The present study suggests that rumination may maintain or increase anger, whereas distraction may help to decrease anger. Implications of these findings for the intervention with children who are experiencing difficulty with anger regulation are discussed.
Keywords: rumination, anger regulation, distraction, state anger, trait anger
